Letter to the editor: Get involved, don't depend on the government

Recently, a Kansas City Star writer wrote a column — "Help Urged to Keep Kids Out of Hot Cars" — about a pair of “good Samaritans” who rescued a child from a hot car.

They were true heroes. The temperature outside was 89 degrees, but much hotter inside the car, which had the windows barely cracked. The mother then showed up and attacked one of the rescuers. The gist of the article was that many are calling on the federal government to fix this problem by spending more money and issuing regulations for developing technology for sensors that “may” remind drivers that they have left their child in the car seat.

In the case of this latest incident, that would have made no difference since the mother admitted she chose to leave the child in the seat since the child was sleeping. The author also cited a case where a parent had technology that identified a child moving in the car, but the parent ignored the warning and turned off the alert with a fob from his office.

Asking the government to fix our own stupidity is the opposite of what we should learn from this. The child was rescued because two people chose to get involved. Spending more of our money through yet more government intrusion in our lives will not solve the problem. It will also be unconstitutional.

What should/could we do? Get involved. If you see something that does not look right, say something. Do something. We in Leavenworth should learn from the example of these two good Samaritans and have the right to be proud of them as two of our own.